Gain on sale of investments in privately-held companies. Management believes that it is appropriate to exclude these gains as they are not reflective of the ongoing operating performance and should be excluded from period-over-period comparisons.

Write-down of investments in privately-held companies.

Write-down of investments in privately-held companies relates to Atmel's proportional share of income or losses from investments accounted for under the equity method which is recorded in interest and other (expense) income, net. Atmel excludes this item from its non-GAAP financial measures primarily because this is generally not reflective of ongoing operating performance of Atmel's business and can distort period-over-period comparisons.

Non-GAAP tax adjustments.

In conjunction with the implementation of Atmel's global structure changes which took effect January 1, 2011, the company changed its methodology for reporting non-GAAP taxes. Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, Atmel's non-GAAP tax amounts approximate operating cash tax expense, similar to the liability reported on Atmel's tax returns for the current period/year. This approach is designed to enhance the ability of investors to understand the company's tax expense on its current operations, provide improved modeling accuracy, and substantially reduce fluctuations caused by GAAP adjustments which may not reflect actual cash tax expense.

Atmel forecasts its annual cash tax liability and allocates the tax to each quarter in proportion to revenue for that period.

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest.

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest relates the share of profit allocated to a noncontrolling interest in one of Atmel's subsidiaries. Atmel excludes these items from its non-GAAP financial measures primarily because these gains are individually discrete events and generally not reflective of the ongoing operating performance of Atmel's business and can distort period-over-period comparisons.